Took the Tobacco Flats 4x4 road to it's end, then up the valley and the right side of the east slope. Secor lists the ridge to Point 3765 1/2 mile to the south as class 4, but kept it to class 2 by dropping off the ridge, still needed ax and crampons. The summit blocks are class 3, maybe class 4 if you don't go the best way as I did (true summit is to the southeast, I went up the wrong one first). Decended from the saddle 1/3 mile further to the south.

The trip went great until I hit the saddle between the east slope and east slope variation. From there to the top the snow was insanely soft and a pain in the bum bum to get through. I routinely asked myself why I kept going as I literally crawled through the softening snow towards the summit. Eventually I made it and had a good vessel for getting back down (a snowboard), which took me almost all the way to the top of the hill above convict lake.

This was planned as a warm-up/acclimatization hike for Mt. Goethe/Mt. Lamarck in the '07 Sierra Challenge. I highly recommend ascending the hanging valley variation of the east slope. The only drawback is that it does not allow you to view the upper east slope before reaching the rock. After a slight route-finding error we summited via the left-hand bowl of the east slope. Descent was going well until my GF slipped and sliced her shin wide open, which was further antagonized on the descent by dome bushwacking. Back as the car we sealed her wound with some 3M skin strips, although I felt she should have went for 6-8 stitches. She was hurting a bit and we thus decided to punt on the Sierra Challenge for the following day. Next time I hope to hit the NW Ridge in late winter or early spring.

Did the east ridge last weekend. Just thought I'd share that the small lake in the hanging valley on the east side is dry as a bone, so if you plan on refilling water bottles there, you might be out of luck. There was still a trickle in the stream upcanyon but I don't know how much longer it will last.

The variation is a little rough because it is steeper and the trail (Sort of) does move when you step on it (Scree/Talus). Not too bad though. Next time I would go up the standard way and down the variation

Yup, all the elements were in place for an afternoon of fun with Robin. We managed the route in 6.5 hours car to car, which unfortunatly meant that Amigos was closed by the time we got there. Oh well. Amazingly, we were the first people to sign the register in over three weeks.

Unremarkable summit from the East Slope. Was supposed to be a reattempt of the NW Ridge from which I was driven down by a snow storm last September. Rain at 0430 on this morning caused me to change my plans away from the exposed ridge. Turned out to be perfect weather all day.

Got it this time! Mark (ming21) and I came back for our 2nd attempt on Morrison (our 1st attempt defeated by snow conditions). Again we started up from Convict Lake at 5:08am. This time the snow had consolidated and it was cooler. We summited at 10:13am. Glissaded down the East Variation (hanging valley) and then bushwacked our way down to Convict Lake arriving back at the trailhead by 1:15pm.

Climbed with ming21 (Mark). Worst snow climb ever for me. Got only an hour of sleep at the Convict Lake trailhead because fishermen were driving all night long since 2:30am (it was the first day of opening season....aghhh). Also, came in from LA with a sore throat and small cold. Got up anyway and started walking by 6:11am. Reached the base of the East Slope climb by 8:30am or so. Lots and lots of snow. Rested for about half hour and started up. Had to put snowshoes. After reaching the 10,900-foot saddle from the East Variation (hanging valley), I encountered the "worst" snow that I've climbed so far on: totally a 7/11 slurpy, unconsolidated, very wet snow, total soup. Mark and I were sinking to our waists. Took a long time just to travel a few hundred feet. Extremely warm (est. around 80 degrees F). We tried climbing some loose rock to avoid the unconsolidated and very warm snow soup. We did a spicy traverse between 11,600' and 11,700'. At 11,700 feet (just before noon), we stopped to look at 3 naturally-trigger wet avalanches happening in front of our eyes on the final slope to the summit. That's when we said enough and got that hell out of there! If we got caught in one of those cement slides, it would the last of us. I think the extremely hot day caused many slides in the Sierra. Got back to Convict Lake by 2:40pm. Now I have to go back and finish Morrison at some other time.